Cause of Death: Costing too much for what it delivered, not checking that the whole of WAR was equal or better than the sum of its parts, second systems effect

Mythic had built up a bit of a reputation in MMO circles following its launch and development of Dark Ages of Camelot. Expectations were solid for Mythic’s follow-up title, which at one point was going to be space Roman alt-history game Imperator, but that game was cancelled in 2005 in favour of Warhammer Online, aka Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

When war is all around you, you should still take the time to look your best.

On the surface, this seemed like a home run for Mythic. They had MMO experience, they had fantasy games experience, the Warhammer IP gave them a solid foundation for game concepts and EA was bankrolling them to make a hit. However, it seems like WAR became hostage to the second system effect, where the ‘second system’ (in this case WAR) tries to improve its ‘first system’ (DAoC) in all ways, but just ends up blowing out the budget, ends up over-designed and lacking in focus.

Systems that players loved in beta when tested on their own – such as RvR fortress capture – didn’t fit with player behaviour when added to the full game. But by then too much money had been spent and the game had to launch. Plus performance issues meant that the big RvR combat just couldn’t happen without crashing the client.